Soap Commander Week:

Day 2: Today's shave was phenomenal and much better compared to yesterday's shave which turned out to be the vintage razor that wouldn't hold an edge. This was also my very first shave soap that I bought from Soap Commander and it quickly became my top soap. But I have since bought more soaps and aftershaves from them and that top soap is now Vision which happened to save yesterday's shave and keep from getting cut. If you like the Shulton Company's 1938 version of Old Spice get this soap and aftershave. It's a perfect match to the original:

The Vintage was Tossed:

Unfortunately I had to make a tough decision today and toss my vintage into the garbage. There's several reasons why I tossed it out today but the main was that it wouldn't hold an edge no matter who honed it. 3 people who have thousands of edges out there shaving have honed it several times and have honed the 2 Gold Dollar razors you see below. It all but butchered my face today and the ONLY reason it did not do that during today's shave was because I used an extremely good shaving soap today that has a lot of cushioning ability and more than enough slickness to help prevent this. But the crazy part is that I just got through performing a touch up on my honing stones 2 or 3 days ago and that razor shouldn't be trying to dig into your skin after that. Another thing is that I believe I know when that razor was made and I should have tossed it out sooner. It was made in between the late 1930's and early 1940's. During that time period, WW2 was going on and there was a shortage of certain metals because of it especially over in Sheffield, England. So in a pinch, they used other metals instead of what they would normally use and the end results are usually not good. That's the case here. Another reason was that unlike my Gold Dollars seen below, it chipped on me yet again during my usual stropping routine and I was ONLY using the weight of the blade as I do with ALL of my other razors. My Gold Dollars don't chip after I strop them and I do NOT have to pull out the stones after every use with them like I did with my vintage. I know it's NOT ME in terms of performing a touch up on the stones because I'm getting consistent results with my Gold Dollars. If it was me, I would NOT be getting good consistent results on any of my razors:

Here's the vintage's replacement:

Once it's properly honed, it will be in my rotation on a regular basis. Right now it's got a factory edge on it that's duller than a spoon is, and I'm in the process of getting some more stones to take this beast all the way to past shave ready and if you read my previous post, you would know that I have a new strop on the way as we speak. My vintage was basically a "pot metal" razor plain and simple. When even the most experienced hone meister's mentor puts and edge on that razor and it still doesn't hold an edge and chips on the first stroke during a normal stropping routine that I've done over a thousand times easy and never has a problem with stropping on my other razors, then yeah something is definitely wrong and it could only be the razor. I can't even tell you how many straight razor shaves I've done at this point. So that alone rules out any form learning curves period.

New Strop Ordered:

Well after looking at various online retailers, Straight Razor Designs had what I need for the best price. I went ahead and ordered a brand new 3 inch black Latigo leather strop with matching webbing for the secondary material and I am looking forward to using this much wider strop. Right now I've been using the old half and half method which is stropping 1 half of the razor starting with the toe of the razor and then doing the other half of the immediately afterwards which takes a while to strop my razors in general and I am NOT a speed demon either when it comes to stropping:

Here's the order confirmation email:

My current hanging strop is great and all and it has been a life saver because I needed it really badly at the time of purchase. So it'll see more action until my new strop gets here.

Soap Commander Week:

Today's shave was good and thankfully Soap Commander has a lot cushioning ability because this vintage is pretty much gone after today's shave. It simply doesn't have enough weight behind it for my beard and the soap's performance kept me from getting cut too bad thank goodness. This is also my favorite soap out of my entire collection. So this vintage razor is going in the trash. I've already taken it to the stones for a touch up twice in the last couple of weeks and I used the exact same method with it as I did with my Gold Dollar razors and I used ONLY the weight of the blade as I do with my Gold Dollar razors. I don't know what exactly is wrong with this razor, but I'm NOT going to waste my time with this one razor on the stones anymore:

It also doesn't hold its edge either. One shave and it's done.

Tiki Bar's "50's Dive Bar":

Oh My is all I can say about this shave I got today. There's nothing like a hot shower to sooth tired, sore and aching muscles and then I got a BLISS FULL shave on top of it. You can NOT get any better than that. This soap has a fantastic scent which is gummy bears and a sweet cola type of scent. This soap is fabulous. Wow what a shave:

"Jnats" are Out:

After looking at various dealers, suppliers and listening to the "wet shaver's round table" earlier tonight, I decided to rule out "jnats" which is short for Japanese natural water stones. The first problem you will encounter with a jnat up front is costs. So far the most expensive stone that I've seen was $300 U.S. Dollars and tonight's guest said that they've been known to go much higher than that which blows my mind and automatically rules me out immediately on 70% of what's out there. Another huge problem that I've encountered is shipping issues. If the stones are here in the Continental United States, there's really not any problems getting it. But if these stones have to be ordered and shipped directly from Japan, then I have to deal with international shipping and U.S. Customs which has NEVER been easy on a good day which I experienced first hand in my trucking career. The costs with the Chinese water stones or Cnats hasn't been bad but the shipping card gets pulled once again. So since I'm getting great results with the Norton 4/8K combo stone, I figured why not stick to synthetic stones and deal with suppliers located here in the states. Maybe some day, I'll be able to buy a natural water stone but it's definitely not going to be in 2015. Another thing that made this decision a bit easier is that it's too soon for me to be looking at Japanese Natural Water stones. I'm just now getting started in honing and I haven't even went past 8K yet so it would be a bad idea for me to get one at this time. I've not been honing long enough yet. Even though I'm confident that I can hone a razor from start to finish, it's just too early for me and I need to hone for a while before getting a Japanese natural water stone:

So the highest I'll be going will be the Naniwa 12K and there's no telling when I'll be able to get that stone. Next month my wet shaving gear will be slowing way down as I start buying liquid propane for the up coming colder months.

Tiki Bar's Peppermint Bark:

Today's shave was really good. I also used my Gillette Fusion today for the first time in 8 months. It's my travel/airport razor just in case I have to fly somewhere. I'm NOT about to trust my best shaving gear to airport security period. Plus they don't question the Gillette Fusion at security check points which will make your experience much easier. They can lose my Gillette Fusion all they want to because it's not like it can't be replaced considering it's on every corner and in every drug store or super market known to man. So enough about that thing, and get to my very first Tiki Bar shaving soap purchase. This is the soap that got me hooked on Tiki Bar and I've since become very close friends with the owner Amanda Stott who's one of the sweetest ladies you will ever have the pleasure of talking to. I now have 8 of her soaps and I plan on getting a few more here in the near future: